USA > Texas > A comprehensive history of Texas, 1685-1897 > Part 15
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after a short but fieree contest, the enemy hoisted the white flag and surrendered. The other vessels and the infantry on the wharf then hoisted the white flag also. At the beginning of the engagement the Westfield was at anchor in Bolivar Chan- nel, and in attempting to get into position for action ran aground on Pelican Spit ; and after several ineffectual efforts to get her off, Commodore Renshaw blew her up, and in the explosion lost his own life with six of his crew. The steamers which had hoisted the white flag drifted slowly towards the bar, and while officers were pro- ceeding to receive their surrender, they steamed off over the bar and proceeded to sea with white flags flying, under the fire of Captain Fontaine's guns at Fort Point. It is a somewhat remarkable coincidence that these same vessels entered Galveston harbor but three months before under the protection of the white flag, and now took advantage of the same protection to make their escape.
The Union loss was the Harriet Lane, one schooner, and two barks, and about four hundred prisoners, the number of killed and wounded on the Harriet Lane not being reported ; but among the former were Captain Wainwright and Lieutenant Lea, of the Harriet Lane, and Captain Wilson, of the Owcasco. The Confederate loss was twenty-six killed and one hundred and seventeen wounded.
One of the saddest incidents of this fratricidal war was presented in this engage- ment. Immediately after the capture of the Harriet Lane, Major A. M. Lea, of the Confederate army, who was serving on General Magruder's staff, stepped upon her deck, and the first object which met his astonished gaze was his own son, Lieutenant Lea, of the United States navy, the second officer of the ship, lying upon the deck mortally wounded. The son lived but a short time, and died in his father's arms. The next day Captain Wainright and Lieutenant Lea were buried in the same grave with Masonic and military honors, and the father of the latter, Major A. M. Lea, of the Confederate army, conducted the funeral services.
Among the killed of the Confederates were Captain A. R. Wier, command- ing the artillery on board the Bayou City, and who was the first man to volunteer for the expedition, and Lieutenant Sidney A. Sherman, a son of General Sidney Sherman, who commanded the Texan cavalry at the battle of San Jacinto.
When the Confederate army reached the suburbs of the city on its advance, General Magruder sent a staff officer with a number of ambulances to the Ursuline convent, with instructions to place the conveyances at the disposal of the nuns for their removal to a point of safety ; but, while recognizing the courtesy extended to them, these noble women expressed a preference to remain and nurse the wounded, and tendered the use of the convent as a hospital, and right nobly did they dis- charge their self-imposed duty.
On the 3d of January, the United States steamship Cambria arrived outside with a number of troops on board under Colonel E. J. Davis, of the First Texas ( Union ) Cavalry, and seven companies of the Forty-second Massachusetts, and as the block- ading vessels had sailed for New Orleans after their discomfiture, the officers of the Cambria had no information of the recapture of the city. She came to anchor and sent in a boat with several men for a, pilot, when a pilot-boat was sent out to her under Captain T. W. Payne, a sailor of Galveston, with instructions to entice her in. He boarded the Cambria, when she sailed away with him and sent the pilot-boat back. General Magruder and Captain Mason speak in the highest terms of Captain Payne
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and deplore his capture, but there seems to be some doubt as to his deserving their praise and sympathy. Mr. Lewis Bach, acting purser of the Cambria, says that Captain Payne betrayed to the commander of the Cambria the fact that Galveston was in the hands of the Confederates, and thus enabled her to escape.
Among the men on the yawl boat which came in from the Cambria for a pilot was a man named Thomas Smith, recently a citizen of Galveston, who had deserted from the Confederate army, and who was accused of setting fire to the city several times before his desertion, and had been known as "Nicaragua" Smith. He was shortly afterwards tried by a court-martial, convicted, and shot in accordance with the rules of military law.
This brilliant achievement very much elated the Confederates, and caused great rejoicing among their friends. Shortly afterwards General Magruder was the happy recipient of congratulatory letters from the President of the Confederate States and many of the generals and prominent citizens. The Congress of the Confederate States and the legislature of Texas passed resolutions of thanks, and commending the gallantry of the men engaged in the affair. But among all the congratulations received by General Magruder, it may well be doubted if any gave him more genuine pleasure than one from General Sam Houston. From his re- tirement at Huntsville, under date of January 7, 1863, he wrote : "It gives me great pleasure to mingle my congratulations with the many thousands that you have received. You, sir, have introduced a new era in Texas by driving from our soil a ruthless enemy. You deserve, sir, not only my thanks, but the thanks of every Texan. Your advent was scarcely known in Texas when we were awaked from our revery to the realities of your splendid victory. Its planning and execution reflect additional glory on your former fame, as well as on the arms of Texas. Most sincerely do we trust that a new era has dawned upon us, and that you may be enabled again to restore Texas to her wonted security. We hope that Texas, with so gallant a leader as you are, general, will yet show to the world that she is capable of defending her own soil, notwithstanding she has already been drained of her only resources, which have been transferred to other battle-fields. You will find that all Texans want is a general who is capable of leading them to victory, and now having obtained that, I hope you will ever find them ready to second your efforts, and that your future may be as glorious as your past. When you arrived here, general, you found our country without organization, without plans for our defence, and our situation most deplorable. What few resources we had were with- out organization, without discipline, and without everything that was calculated to render the means she had efficient. You have breathed new life into everything ; you have illustrated to them what they can do, and most sincerely do I trust that the past may only be the dawning of the future, and I pray that under the guidance of a Divine Being you may be enabled to carry out the regeneration of Texas. It would give me pleasure, general, to call and pay my respects to you, but that I have recently arisen from a sick bed."
On the night of January 4, 1863. Captain F. S. Rugeley, of Colonel R. R. Brown's regiment, with about forty men, went down the bay on the gunboat Carr, for the purpose of making a night attack upon an intrenched camp which the enemy had erected on the peninsula. The party left the gunboat in three small
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boats about ten o'clock at night, to row quietly up to the shore near the eneamp- ment, and when about half-way a most terrific norther began to blow, and two of the small boats were capsized and twenty-two of the party drowned.
On Sunday night, January. 11, 1863, the citizens and soldiers at Galveston were startled by hearing firing at sea, and were on the lookout for some startling news. But no explanation of the firing was known for some time afterwards. Then it was ascertained that the cause of the firing was an engagement between the United States steamer Hatteras and the Confederate Cruiser 290. Acting Master S. H. Partridge, of the Hatteras, gives the following account of the affair :--
About three o'clock P. M., Sunday, January 11, 1863, a strange vessel hove in sight to the southeast of the blockading fleet off Galveston. The Hotteras was ordered to give chase, and as she approached the stranger the latter appeared as if endeavoring to escape. After dark the Hatteras gained rapidly on the stranger and overtook her, lying to, but under steam. As the Hatteras came alongside her officer hailed and asked what ship it was. She answered: "Her Britannic Majesty's ship Spitfire." The officer of the Hatteras then ordered a boat to go aboard the stranger, and when the boat was lowered Mr. Partridge was ordered to take charge of it and board the stranger. Before the boat was halt a boat's length away the stranger opened fire. It was returned by the Hatteras, and both vessels started ahead under full head of steam, exchanging broadsides as fast as they could load and fire with big guns, for about twenty minutes, and with musketry from both vessels. All this time Mr. Partridge had been trying to board his ship, but could not catch up with her. After the musketry had ceased he discovered that the Hat- teras was stopped and was blowing off steam, and that the stranger was alongside of her for the purpose of boarding. He heard the erew of the stranger cheering, and knew that the Hatteras had been captured ; and instead of giving himself up as a prisoner, rowed back to the fleet in the darkness. The United States steamer Brooklyn went out the next day and found the Hatteras sunk.
This affair occurred about sixteen miles south of Galveston.
On January 31, 1863, the two Confederate cotton-elad gunboats Josiah Bell and Uncle Ben passed out of Sabine Pass and attacked a Union war-ship of nine guns and a schooner of two guns. The Union vessels sailed out to sea, and after a running fight of about two hours the Confederates overtook them, and by a deadly fire from the infantry and dismounted cavalry secreted behind the cotton bales, compelled their surrender about thirty miles from land. Both vessels, the Morning Light and the Velocity, with one hundred and thirty prisoners, and about one hundred thousand dollars' worth of military stores, were captured and carried into Sabine. Major O. M. Watkins, of General Magruder's staff, commanded the Confederates, and Captains Fowler and Johnson, sea captains, commanded the Bell and Uncle Ben, respectively. The land forees on the boats were a detail from Com- pany F, Cook's regiment heavy artillery, under Captains Odum and O'Bryan, and Lieutenants Dowling and Aikens, and details of riflemen from Colonel Pyron's cavalry regiment and Colonel A. W. Spaight's infantry battalion, under Captains Nolan and Aycock, aggregating three hundred.
On the afternoon of April 17, 1863, a party of seven men from the blockading fleet landed on the Louisiana shore opposite Sabine Pass, and made quite extended
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observations from the light-house. As soon as informed of this Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Griffin, of Griffin's Battalion, Twenty-first Texas Infantry, commanding the Confederates at that point, determined to lay a plan for the capture of the next party that should land. Accordingly, on the night of the same day, he placed a party of thirty men of his command, under Lieutenant W. J. Jones, of Company C, and Lieutenant E. T. Wright, of Company D, in the light-house and the dwell- ing-house near by, with instructions to keep themselves well under cover. About eleven o'clock the next day thirteen men in two small boats from the blockading ships Cayuga and New London landed some six hundred yards from the light- house. Three of this party approached very cautiously to within a few yards of the light-house, when, upon demand, they surrendered. The others immediately ran for their boats, followed by the Confederates, led by Lieutenant Jones and Lieu- tenant Wright, and quite a spirited running fight took place. Captain McDermot, of the Cayuga, with his boat and five sailors, were captured, the captain being severely wounded. Captain Read, of the New London, escaped with the other men in his boat, but every man in it except one was wounded, Captain Read losing an eye besides other wounds. Captain McDermot died of his wounds about two o'clock the same day, and his body was sent aboard his ship under a flag of truce.
The only casualty among the Confederates was the death of the gallant Lieutenant E. T. Wright, who was shot through the head while bravely leading his men in the fight.
JOINT RESOLUTION BY THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE.
" Resolution I. Be it resolved, by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the thanks of the Legislature are hereby tendered to General J. B. Magruder and the officers and men under his command for the brilliant victory which they gained over the Federalists at Galveston on the ist of January last. To Major O. M. Watkins and the officers and men under his command for their gallant conduct at Sabine Pass and the recapture of that post and capturing the blockading vessels of the enemy ; and to Major Daniel Shea and the officers and men under his command for their brave defence of the town of Lavaca ; and to Major Hobby and the officers and soldiers under his command for the repulse of the enemy's attack on Corpus Christi, the commencement of our success on the Texas coast ; and to Captains Ireland and Ware and the officers and soldiers under their command for their exploit in the capture of Captain Kittredge and his men near Corpus Christi ; and to Captains Ireland and Wilke and the officers and soldiers under their command for their good conduct in defenting the enemy's attempt to capture one of our vessels and in capturing his barges in the bay of Corpus Christi ; and to Captains Santos Benavides and Refugio Benavides and the officers and men under their command for their vigilance, energy, and gallantry in pursuing and chastising the banditti infesting the Rio Grande frontier.
" Resolution 2. That the governor be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to General J. B. Magruder and the other officers mentioned, with the request that they make them known to the officers and men under their command. "Approved March 6, 1863."
On May 3, 1863, Captain E. E. Hobby, of Company D. Eighth Texas In- fantry, with twenty-eight men, attacked three launches with forty men as they approached the shore of St. Joseph's Island, near Aransas Pass, and captured one
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launch and five prisoners. The second launch, being about three hundred yards from the shore, also hoisted the white flag, when Captain Hobby ordered the firing to cease, and while his men were securing the prisoners and arms in the first launch, the blockading bark having opened fire on them, the second one began to pull out for the bark under cover of the fire. The Confederates again fired on it, doing much execution. They could distinctly sce the men in the launch drop their oars and fall in the boat, and several bodies were seen floating in the water. It reached the bark with only two men in it.
On May 30, 1863, about six o'clock A. M., a Union force of about one hundred and fifty men in four launches from the United States frigate Brooklyn effected a landing at Point Isabel and burned a small schooner which was in the service of the Confederate custom-house officials. Lieutenant J. B. Ammons, of the Thirty-third Texas Cavalry, with eleven men, was stationed there to guard the schooner Eager, which had just succeeded in running the blockade with a cargo of merchandise, and to observe and report the movements of the blockading fleet. He was unable, with his small force, to prevent the landing of the launches, but he burned the Eager and her cargo to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy, and, after exchanging a few shots, retired, and the launches returned to the Brooklyn.
For a long time the Rio Grande frontier had been the scene of depredations by lawless characters and bandits from Mexico. Many murders were committed, and numbers of horses driven across the river by them. The leader of one of these bands was a Mexican named Octaviano Zapata, who was encouraged by the repre- sentatives of the United States in Mexico, and had already received, or been promised, a commission as colonel in the Union army as a reward for his zeal, and actually displayed the United States flag in one of his raids. During this summer this noted outlaw made a raid into Texas, drove off large quantities of stock, and murdered Colonel Jesus Garcia Ramires. Major Santos Benavides, of the Thirty- third Texas Cavalry, with thirty-nine men and three licutenants of Company H and thirty-five men and two lieutenants of Company D of that regiment, followed the outlaws into Mexico, overtook the band near Mier and routed them after a lively engagement. The bandits fled, leaving ten of their number dead upon the ground, including their leader, Zapata.
On the 8th of September a spirited affair took place at Sabine Pass, which defeated a contemplated invasion of the State and reflected great credit upon the Confederate arms. About half-past six o'clock A. M. of that day a large force of Union troops and gunboats appeared off the Pass and bombarded Fort Griffin for about an hour, and then withdrew. The Confederate forces consisted of Company I (Davis Guards), Cook's regiment of heavy artillery, numbering forty-seven men, under the immediate command of Lieutenant Richard W. Dowling, Captain F. H. Odium of that company being in command of the post, and the small cotton-clad gunboat Uncle Ben, carrying a small force of infantry under Lieutenant Joseph O. Cassidy, of Company B, A. W. Spaight's battalion. The armament of Fort Griffin consisted of two twenty-four-pounder smooth-bores, two thirty-two-pounder smooth- bores, and two thirty-two-pounder howitzers,-six guns in all.
The Union forces consisted of the gunboats Clifton, Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Frederick Crocker,
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United States navy, and eighteen transports laden with about fifteen thousand infantry, artillery, and cavalry, all under the command of Major-General W. B. Franklin, Nineteenth Army Corps.
About eleven o'clock A.M. Captain Odlum sent the gunboat Uncle Ben down from Sabine City to Fort Griffin, when she was fired on by the Union gunboats, and about three o'clock P.M. the gunboats began to advance towards the fort. The Clifton steamed up the Texas channel, and the Sachem up the Louisiana channel, both firing on the fort as they advanced, and were followed by the other two gunboats. The Confederates held their fire until the leading gunboats were within about twelve hundred yards, when they opened upon them a rapid fire. At the third round a shot penetrated the steam-drum of the Sachem and she hoisted the white flag. All the guns of the fort were then turned upon the Clifton, and for about three-quarters of an hour the contest was lively and exciting. A shot from the fort carried away the tiller-rope of the Clifton ; she became unmanageable and drifted around and grounded about five hundred yards below the fort, when she also hoisted the white flag. The other gunboats and transports steamed out of the Pass and returned to New Orleans. With the two gunboats were captured about three hundred and fifty prisoners, including Lieutenant-Commander Crocker, thir- teen cannon and a quantity of small-arms, stores, etc. The Union casualties were three officers and ninety-four men ; of the Confederates not a man was hurt.
This brilliant affair was heralded over the country, and the Confederate com- manders took advantage of it to encourage the failing spirits of the citizens and soldiery, and the Confederate Congress passed a resolution extending thanks to Captain Odlum, Lieutenant Dowling, and the Davis Guards for their daring, gal- lant, and successful defence of Sabine Pass.
The expedition to Sabine Pass was intended to be the entering wedge of an invasion of Texas, and, had it been successful, there can be little doubt but that the State would have been subjected to all the horrors accompanying the triumphant march of an invading hostile army. As having saved the State from such a calamity, the gallant defence of Sabine Pass cannot be too highly appreciated.
On October 26, 1863. Major-General N. P. Banks sailed from New Orleans with an army of about seven thousand troops, with the avowed intention of hoisting the Union flag on the soil of Texas at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, cap- turing the city of Brownsville, and by a movement up the river cut off the very important trade between Texas and Mexico, and by a simultaneons movement eastwardly along the coast capture the cities of Houston and Galveston ; and by these operations acquire control of the State. The United States government seemed to regard it as all-important that its flag should float over some portion, if not all, of the State of Texas. The most urgent communications were written to the authorities at Washington by the governors of Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire demanding the invasion and occupation of Texas. Their influence was doubt- less brought to bear through the influence of A. J. Hamilton, who had been appointed military governor of Texas by the President of the United States, and his friends in the North and East. General Banks says that in August, 1863, he was informed by the authorities at Washington that there were important reasons why the flag of the United States should be established in Texas with the least possible
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delay ; that there were reasons other than military why the operations against Texas should be undertaken before others which had been suggested by him. He further says that he was advised that this object could be best effected by combined land and naval movements upon Red River to Alexandria, Natchitoches, or Shreveport, and the occupation of Northern Texas ; that this line was recommended as superior for military operations to the occupation of Galveston or Indianola, but that the final selection was left to his judgment.
He also says that the difficulties attending a movement in the direction of Shreveport-a route which had been thoroughly explored in the spring campaign of 1863-satisfied him that it was impracticable, if not impossible, for the purposes entertained by the government. That the selection of the line of operations having been left with him, he made immediate preparations for a movement by the coast against Houston, selecting Sabine Pass as the point of attack. He regarded it as possessing advantages over any other route by reason of its being immediately con- nected by the Gulf of Mexico with Berwick Bay, then in his possession, and with New Orleans by the Mississippi River, and by rail from Berwick Bay. His objective point seems to have been Houston, the occupation of which would have placed in his hands the control of all the railway communications of the State, reduced to subjection the most populous and productive portion of the country, and cnabled him to move at any moment into the interior in any direction, or to fall back upon Galveston, which could be defended with a very small force. The failure of the ill-fated expedition to Sabine Pass under General Franklin having notified the Confederates of his purpose and rendered it impracticable to repeat the attempt at that point, and the instructions of his government being imperative, he then began an attempt to carry them out by a movement towards Alexandria and Shreveport, or, if possible, across the southern part of Louisiana to Niblett's Bluff. He says that it was soon found to be impracticable, if not impossible, to enter Texas in that direction, because the country between the Teche and the Sabine was without supplies of any kind, and entirely without water ; and the march of three hundred miles across it with wagon transportation alone, where it was certain to meet the Confederates in full force, was necessarily abandoned. He also says that a movement in the direction of Alexandria and Shreveport was equally impracti- cable ; that the route lay over a country entirely destitute of supplies, which had been repeatedly overrun by two armies, and which involved a march of five hundred miles from New Orleans, and nearly four hundred from Berwick Bay, with wagon transportation only, mostly upon a single road, very thickly wooded and occupied by a thoroughly hostile population. And becoming satisfied that it was impossible to execute the orders of his government for the occupation of Texas by either of these routes, he decided, as the only alternative for the accomplishment of this object, that the attempt to get a foothold on the southwestern frontier of Texas, along the Rio Grande, should be made.
Accordingly, on October 26, 1863, he sailed from New Orleans with a force of about seven thousand men, with thirteen transports and three gunboats, for the mouth of the Rio Grande. His army reached Brazos Santiago on November I, and the next day occupied Brazos Island. On the 6th his army marched for Browns- ville, and the Confederate force under General H. P. Bee, being too weak to offer
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